Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 1: Statistical Physics of Biological Systems I (joint BP, DY)
BP 1.4: Talk
Monday, March 22, 2010, 11:15–11:30, H45
Active Transport on Biological Networks — •Ines-Kristin Weber1, Philip Greulich1,2, and Ludger Santen1 — 1Department of Theoretical Physics, Saarland University, 66041 Saarbrücken — 2Department of Theoretical Physics, Cologne University, 50937 Cologne
Active transport processes are vital for living cells. They are used, e.g. for structure formation, cell signaling and motion of cells. An large number of transport processes is carried out by molecular motors, i.e. specialized proteins that are able carry cargo along the cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton is an inhomogeneous network of polar filaments which determines the cell shape and guides the motion of molecular motors.
In this work we investigate the relation between network structure and dynamics of molecular motors, whereat we consider computer generated filament networks as well as realistic structures of the cytoskeleton. The real cytoskeleton structures are obtained from light microscopy images which are preprocessed by automated image analysis procedures to localize fluorescent marked microtubules. Molecular motors are modeled as stochastic self-driven particles. By means of computer simulations and a phenomenological approach we investigate the formation of clusters on the different kinds of networks. We observe cluster formation at all size scales, even for small particle densities [1].
[1] P. Greulich, L. Santen, arXiv:0904.3890v1